Wednesday 5 January 2011 11.09 EST
First published on Wednesday 5 January 2011 11.09 EST

Ann Widdecombe today urged the Conservatives to lift their ban on new grammar schools to give clever children a route out of poverty.

The former Tory home office minister told an education conference that it was now left to chance whether a bright poor child received a rigorous education.

Some comprehensives were "pure gold", while others were "very large, incompetent and seriously disruptive", she said.

Speaking ahead of her presidential address to the North of England Education Conference in Blackpool, Widdecombe said: "There was a time when a poor child who was academically able could go to a grammar school, and there was no issue of sending them on to Oxbridge afterwards. I have always thought we were totally wrong to abolish grammar schools.

"[Abolishing them] would have been less of a disaster if the comprehensive system had been more successful. I would like to see a gradual increase in selection."

Widdecombe, who recently appeared on the BBC's ballroom dancing show Strictly Come Dancing, said she would not want to put the education system through a "massive upheaval" by reinstating grammar schools everywhere, but called on the government not to stand in the way of a town hall that wanted to create new grammars and reinstate selective state schools.

The issue of grammar schools is a controversial one for the coalition. David Cameron ruled out building new grammar schools before the election and has said that there will be no rise in the number of state schools that select on academic ability.

However, many in his party are in favour of academically selective schools. The Liberal Democrats reject grammar schools and vowed in their manifesto to oppose the creation of new ones.

Widdecombe also said that transferring the cost of paying for a university degree to students "would inevitably have some impact on the take-up of places at universities". Tuition fees will rise from £3,290 to a maximum of £9,000 a year from 2012.

She added that the English education system was beset by problems such as grade inflation and a lack of rigour. There were also questions over the quality of some teachers, she said. These problems were compounded by social problems such as the "breakdown of the family and alienation – especially on large inner-city council estates", she said.